


All you need is math and friends

by Mallior



Series: Tony Stark's collection of stray superheroes - Limited Edition [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Possibly OOC, Post-Movie(s), Unbeta'ed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-29
Updated: 2015-04-29
Packaged: 2018-03-26 08:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3844951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mallior/pseuds/Mallior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>„DUM-E, leave him alone and go back to that painting station. Thor, ignore the scrap heap, he is like dog made from junk metal and faulty coding. Also, be a darling and grab the other end of the chassis before it breaks my head.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	All you need is math and friends

**Author's Note:**

> The fic is unbeta'ed and English isn't my first language. 
> 
> Fair warning: the author only watched two movies (Iron Man 1 and the Avengers), this work is based on her headcanons and ideas.

Thor arrived with black clouds on a Saturday afternoon, followed by a three days long downpour. He greeted them with a subdued smile and slaps on their backs, then disappeared into the room, Tony offered to him.

This behaviour made even Tony frown. For a few days, he buried himself in the lab, arguing with JARVIS about the latest repulsor test results and trying to modify Steve’s bike without him noticing anything and working on a team vehicle. When he resurfaced after JARVIS threatening to go HAL 9000 on his ass, he found four confused team member in the communal kitchen that morning.

Bruce was the first who noticed him lurking in the door and with a heavy sigh, he threw a clean kitchen cloth at him, vaguely gesturing toward his face. Oh, it was probably oil and – judging by the gritty, stinging texture – carbon fibre dust…   
With a shrug, he cursorily wiped his face and hands, then sat down between Clint and Steve. The archer hummed at him as greeting, munching on a pile of cubed fruits. Steve just blinked at him, still half asleep, nursing his coffee cup, while Bruce put a plate of waffles and a cup of chocolate sauce in front of him.

„What happened, who died, where is Thor?” Tony asked as he reached for the fork next to the plate.  
„Loki is dead, Thor is in his room.” Natasha summed up the situation, without looking up from her book. The matter of fact of her voice made Tony choking on his waffle. Clint shoved his glass of water into Tony’s hand, before patting him on his back. The engineer coughed for a few minutes and drained the glass in one motion.   
„Well,” he croaked „next time I would like some warning, thanks.”   
„I just answered your question.” Natasha murmured, her eyes still on her book.   
„Yeah, thanks.”   
  
„So, Thor is in his room, sometimes he shows up for food, and that’s it. I swear, he was more lively after the Chitauri battle.” Clint commented, after Tony stopped wheezing.   
„Does he talk to anybody?” Tony asked.   
„No, not really. I think he still mourns Loki. I found him sometimes in the gym at night. He just beats up a few punching bag, then goes back to his room. By the way, we are low on the punching bags, because Thor destroys them quicker than me.” Steve said, looking a lot more awake than a few minutes ago.   
„I remember making them Steve-proof. Bruce, tell me I’m not hallucinating.” the engineer moaned.   
„You remember correctly, we made them much more durable, but as it seems, we didn’t thought about Asgardian strength.” Bruce looked around. „But if we modify the percentage of the… or just swap it for something stronger. I need paper Tony, why there isn’t a notebook in here?”   
„Because we live in the 21st century, Bruce and we also have JARVIS and my nice little invention, the holographic interface. Everywhere in the Tower, Bruce. Even in the kitchen and in your lab. JARVIS, notes.” with that, a shimmery blue window opened in front of the scientist and the matching keyboard blinked to life on the kitchen island’s surface. Bruce stared at it for a moment, then with a shrug, he started typing.

*-*-*

„JARVIS? Where’s Thor?”  
„In his room, Sir.”   
„Tell him, to come down to the lab.”   
„Mr. Odinson is on the way.”

*-*-*

The glass door of the lab slid open as Thor arrived, JARVIS letting him in.  
„Are you asked for me Anthony?” the thunder God asked, deftly avoiding the overenthusiastic robot, who tried to greet him.   
„DUM-E, leave him alone and go back to that painting station. Thor, ignore the scrap heap, he is like dog made from junk metal and faulty coding. Also, be a darling and grab the other end of the chassis before it breaks my head.” Tony’s voice sounded from the back of the lab – though it looked more like a garage with mysterious mechanical parts and a few blue holograms -, his sneaker and jeans clad legs was the only visible part of him, under a big metal contraption.   
„What are you doing, Anthony?” Thor slowly walked forward, one eye on the strange robot – though it wheeled itself into another part of the lab –, one on the strewn mechanical junk on the floor.   
„Drop the ’Anthony’ nonsense, it makes me think of my dear father, and that’s never a nice memory. It’s Tony or be creative, and find a nickname. Also, lift this up a little.” the pair of legs carefully kicked the chassis, prompting Thor to lift it up. The engineer quickly slid out under the metal, a hammer and a blowtorch in each of his hands, face smudged with something dark.   
„What are you building?”   
„Well, I think the non-fliers of our little band of misfits need something to travel on land, the Quinjet takes them on far journeys, but it would be nice to have smaller vehicle, after leaving the jet. So, I’m building a car, more like a jeep. I tried to find one to modify, but they are too big or too heavy or the armour on them are laughable. So, yeah, I’m building a car.”  Tony grinned at him after his rant. „And you, my friend will help me, because if DUM-E drops that chassis on me one more time, my head will break permanently.”   
„I’m not well versed in the mechanics of your carriages, Tony. Maybe you should ask Steven for help.”   
„Nonsense. JARVIS said you work the holograms perfectly fine, and only destroyed one toaster. You are better than Steve in that topic. His tally is a toaster and a microwave, along with his first tablet.” Tony patted his shoulder, leaving an oily black hand print on the sleeve of his grey T-shirt.   
„Well, it seemed much worse… But how can I help?” Thor asked, stepping closer to the metal contraption on the floor.   
„We’ll start with the underside, I need to weld a few things together, then I’ll unearth the parts of the undercarriage. If it’s finished, we’ll pick up the engine and hope for the best, because it has its own power source. And if the Tower still stands after the first try of it, the last part will be the interior.” Tony summed up their work, wandering around the lab, picking up tools.   
„Tell me, why that power source is so dangerous and why do you want use it?”   
„It’s an arc reactor, though much smaller and has less capacity than my one. It doesn’t need fossil fuel, a great deal more silent and eco-friendly than anything else on the market. Also, you can travel more with it, than with a Tesla. And I really hope it’s not that dangerous, but to be honest, I never tried to use it in an engine, which I redesigned, because nobody ever thought about having an inner power source like that.”   
„That sounds interesting and I’m sure your design will work perfectly, my friend.” Thor smiled at the inventor.   
Tony grinned back and tossed a welding torch into the god’s hand.

*-*-*

 

Bruce found them in Tony’s lab, smeared with black grease, glowing holograms with coding and blueprints spread around them, deeply in discussion.   
„But of you disturb the fabric of relative space, you can cause damage! What if there are obstacles on the surface? The molecules of a living being will fuse with a wall or what?” Tony exclaimed.   
„I told you, you will not fuse with anything. In the realms, they have places that are used for only opening the Bifrost. They are strictly gateway places, there are no buildings here.” Thor answered patiently, not for the first time, if he read the expression on his face correctly. Bruce cleared his throat, cutting Tony’s rant off. They turned toward him, Thor with an amused half smile, Tony with a small but annoyed frown.   
„Guys, it’s almost 11 in the evening, dinner is already cold. You should come up for food.”   
„We don’t have time for trivial things like food, Bruce. Our big, blond friend here tries to convince me that bending space is perfectly safe. He even calculated it for me, but I’m still not sure about it.” Tony grumbled.   
„He calculated what, exactly?” the scientist blinked at him in disbelief.   
„The travel speed of the Bifrost, the probability of an accident and with JARVIS’ help he made a quick blueprint of it.” the engineer gestured toward one of the holograms, which looked like one of those sci-fi wormholes. „And if you are here, my green friend, help me to convince him, he need an uni degree and after that, he need to publish all of this.”   
„Why don’t you publish this Tony? You said you have the degrees, it would be simpler.” Thor patted him on the back. It made the two human gasp.   
„You don’t relinquish academic discoveries. It’s like relinquishing victories! And I don’t steal others’ ideas, I’m not Justin Hammer!” now Tony seemed angry.   
„Peace my friend, it was just an idea. It wasn’t my intention to insult you.” the god tried to placate Tony. „But to be honest, it’s really doctor Foster’s field, and she wasn’t happy when I tried to correct something in her work. I would like to keep this knowledge between us, but if you want to share with others, please do it under your own name.” Thor’s smile vanished as he spoke, telling there was still problem between him and Foster.   
„I think we shouldn’t publish any of this. Just think about what would happen if some of those renegade scientists read it. Knowing their megalomaniac tendencies, they would try to invade Asgard, or just open a portal between Earth and Jotunheim.” Bruce commented, Thor and Tony nodded in unison.   
„That’s it. No publication, but still think you should have a degree in astrophysics and one in theoretical mathematics. After that, you should work with Bruce a little on nuclear physics. If you like it, get a degree of it too.” Tony grinned at them. „I can get him into MIT.”   
Bruce grabbed the engineer’s arm and started to steer him toward the door.   
„Tony, why don’t you leave Thor to decide what he wants, and if he has something in mind, you two can plan it. But before that,” he silenced Tony with a glare „why don’t you eat something and sleep a little? You are awake for almost three days and ate only this morning.”   
„But Brucie, we must plan! And I’m not hungry. Thor is a genius, we can’t let this go. Also, my Jolly Green Giant…”   
  
Thor just smiled at their back, listening to Tony’s rant about Thor and the numbers he solved. It was nice to be with people who didn’t see him as a muscle-bound fool. His soul felt a little lighter…  

  
/END/


End file.
